Tyrone Under 20s lose out to Cork fightback in All Ireland semi-final

Kevin Kelly

Cork came from seven points down early in the second half to win a gripping All Ireland U20 semi final against Tyrone at Bord na Mona O’Connor Park in Tullamore on Sunday afternoon.

The Ulster champions looked set to cause an upset but Cork’s bench made a major impact with 1-05 from play while the sending off of midfielder Joe Oguz in the 47th minute was a major blow for the Red Hands as well.

For the second championship game in a row, Tyrone recovered from a poor start to lead by four points at the break. Colm Barrett put Cork in front after only 13 seconds but it was 0-2 apiece by the fourth minute with Mark Cronin and Tiarnan Quinn providing points for their respective sides.

Cathal O’Mahony then landed a superb free off the ground for Cork and in the eighth minute they grabbed a well worked goal through Cronin after he received a pass from Colm O’Callaghan.

Peter Og McCartan and O’Mahony exchanged points before Tyrone got back into the game with a goal. A quickly taken free from Sean Og McAleer found James Garrity who offloaded to Darragh Canavan and the centre half forward did the rest with a cool finish.

Tyrone then hit seven in a row with McAleer and Quinn getting a couple each to give them a 1-10 to 1-6 interval lead.

A Quinn grace and one from McAleer put Tyrone seven clear within three minutes of the restart and they were in a great position at that stage though O’Mahony and Cronin closed the gap before Garrity got a Tyrone score.

A great 70m run from Ethan Jordan resulted in a Tyrone point to put them five clear but that’s when Cork hit back after Oguz was dismissed.

Jack Murphy blasted in a goal and Mahony, Ianna O’Hanlon and Fionn Herlihy all tagged on points to give them a sensational comeback win despite having Jack McCarthy black carded late on having used all their subs.